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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Creating and maintaining purpose in life in old age
— a meta-analysis | | Author(s) | Martin Pinquart |
| Journal title | Ageing International, vol 27, no 2, Spring 2002 |
| Pages | pp 90-114 |
| Keywords | Life satisfaction ; Well being ; Middle aged ; Older people ; Literature reviews. |
| Annotation | Purpose in life is a defining feature of mental health. In old age, maintaining high levels of purpose in life may become more difficult, due to increasing losses (e.g. widowhood, retirement). Meta-analysis was used to synthesise findings from 70 studies on purpose in life in middle age and old age. A small age-associated decline of purpose in life was found, which was stronger in older age groups. Purpose in life showed a strong association with social integration, and with relational quality in particular. In addition, high purpose in life was related to better health, higher everyday competence, higher socio-economic status, being employed and being married. Furthermore, strong associations with psychological well-being and low levels of depressive symptoms were found. The author concludes that relying on sources that have low or even no age-associated decline - such as social integration and previous attainments - counteract strong declines of purpose in life in old age. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020905209 A |
| Classmark | F:5HH: D:F:5HH: SE: B: 64A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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